Sophos to move into mobile device management space

The acquisition of the German MDM vendor and creator of the smartMan technology, which acts as the base of Sophos's Mobile Control, will see the security vendor move into the rapidly developing area.

It said that the combination of Sophos's encryption and data protection capabilities and Dialogs' Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premise mobile management technology provides a unique value proposition to the market.

Talking to SC Magazine, Thomas Lippert, product manager of mobile data protection at Sophos, said the two companies had a partnership agreement. It also plans to add anti-virus, encryption and network access control to the core of the technology for a future single management suite.

Dialogs also offers mobile communication services for fast and reliable mobile messaging and location-based services, which Sophos will continue to support. Sophos said that it will keep the company base in Dortmund but did not reveal financial details of the acquisition.

Rainer Gawlick, CMO of Sophos, said: “This is only the beginning of Sophos's complete security offering for mobile devices and will be complemented by solutions for mobile security and mobile data encryption in the coming months. Joining forces with Dialogs will allow Sophos to offer fully integrated solutions.”

Frank Zimmermann, co-founder and managing director of Dialogs, said: “We're excited to be joining a complete security leader with deep background in mobile security. Our complementary expertise will further strengthen the Sophos mobile development team, resulting in quicker time to market to deliver enterprises the industry's most comprehensive mobile security offerings.”

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